I love planning surprise parties.

As recent as when I was a junior in college, I thought I wanted to be a party planner. I liked planning small get togethers and minor surprise parties then. I liked using my planner. I thought it made perfect sense. 

Flash forward to July of this year at about three in the afternoon on Saturday. I'm sweating in my tank top and shorts. I'm anxious and can't blink because what if I miss some small detail. I'm so irritable and worried about the surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday not going off without a hitch that when Paul tried to hug me in the midst of putting up decorations and straightening the chip bowl for the tenth time, I said "DO NOT TOUCH ME." 

Yup, that's my life now. A few years after saying in my public speaking class at Stevenson that I wanted to be a party planner and there I was having a meltdown 30 minutes before my mom was going to come home from her hiking adventure with her friend, Jody, and worrying about ridiculous things like: What if she isn't surprised? What if she hates this? What if she's mad she's coming back from hiking all sweaty and she walks in to 15+ friends, family, and neighbors who want to eat food with her and drink sangria? What if there's not enough people here? 
Uh, yeah, nope. I wouldn't have worked in the party planning world. I'm too big of a worry wart and a perfectionist. 

The good news is -- despite all of my anxiousness and worrying, the party was even more awesome than I could have hoped for! I had a lot of help from my dad (who had the idea for a surprise 50th birthday party in the first place), my sisters, Shannon, Paul and everyone else that came from near and far to make it to the party. 

My mom was surprised and seemed (and I think she actually was - right, mom?) happy! She didn't hate it, wasn't mad about the hiking sweatiness she had in front of everyone, and was happy to drink and eat food with everyone. Not sure why I expected her not to want to eat and drink, however. 
Naturally, the cake pops I made the night before at Shannon's were a hit - which tends to be the case when cake pops are around and despite my worrying that we wouldn't have enough food -- almost all the food was gone by the end of the evening. And yeah, at the end of the evening, I realized that maybe I do like party planning. Maybe it is a rush for me, my worst, horrific, and most anxiety-filled nightmare, and then a really good pay off at the end. 
I'll still volunteer and want to plan parties in the future. I'll have fun buying the food and the decorations and inviting all of the people. And if anyone wants to see a girl melting down the day of that same party because what if the cupcakes don't look just right or what if the one person that couldn't make it to the party ruins the whole thing -- you can count on me. I'm your girl. 
Oh, and happiest belated 50th birthday to my mom!